In the past, there have been various attempts to provide apparatuses which would be able to effectively simulate a malfunctioning body organ and provide certain fluids to the body for control of certain bodily functions. These apparatuses have been contemplated to be both internal and external. One of the largest areas for use of these apparatuses was to control the amount of insulin input required by a diabetic.
Without such devices, the diabetic had to rely on taking insulin injection at periodic intervals to control his disease. This required that the diabetic always carry around a hypodermic needle and a supply of insulin should the need arise that dosage was required to control the disease.
This reaction type remedy caused the diabetic to take improper dosages of insulin to control his or her disease. It was rarely the case that the proper amounts of insulin were dispensed to the body as would be done by the insulin producing organ. Although insulin is being used by way of example, the same is true for other necessary fluids that are no longer supplied to the body in correct dosages because of a malfunctioning organ.
Previous apparatuses, used for supplying fluids to the body to replace or supplement the fluids provided by a malfunctionining organ, were reaction type devices and not intended to essentially simulate the improperly functioning organ.
The major drawback in reaction type-apparatuses were side effects to the user. In a particular case of a diabetic, there could be insulin shock because the body would not accept large dosages of insulin.
There have been various additional problems with previous apparatuses in their ability to change with the needs of the user. In most cases, if there was an automatic system, it would be set to provide a large volume of the required fluid to the body. Essentially, the apparatus would be hardwired to produce a certain output which would be unchanging. To prevent any problems with this type of system, it was always constructed such that there could be no changes in volumetric delivery made by the user. Any changes to be made in the prescription would have to be made by the physician or required the purchase and installation of a new system to handle this increased or decreased volumetric need.
Such apparatuses in the past were neither programmable nor able to be accessed and operated by the user. Since this was the case, it made the user extremely dependent upon the physician to take care of all of his needs in accordance with his or her specific physiological requirements. Because of the limited time that doctors have to see any particular user, it was difficult for the problems of the doctor to finalize the proper volumetric requirements for the user so as to prevent or minimize any undesirable side effects.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems as will be described subsequently.